Sunday Morning News

'Magic' Lovers Gather in Brussels For High Stakes

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: More than 250 young people from at least 40 different countries have gathered in Brussels to play cards, but it's not your ordinary game of cards. This one is televised and played at both amateur and professional levels for stakes of more than $2 million a year.

Patricia Kelly has our report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PATRICIA KELLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This student from New Jersey in the United States is working his way through university by playing cards. He's not gambling, it's not poker or blackjack, it's a trading card game called Magic The Gathering. He's the reigning U.S. champion. If he beats the competition gathered here, he'll be world champion and take home the first prize of $34,000.

JON FINKEL, "MAGIC" PLAYER: I don't really have any job besides playing Magic and it's a really great job. I get to travel around the world, make a lot of money, have a nice car, a nice apartment.

KELLY: Magic is a battle of wits. The cards, illustrated by the world's top fantasy artists, picture fantasy monsters and magic worlds. As in football or soccer or chess, the game relies on attack and defense strategies. The cards allow players to control magic creatures and cast spells on their opponents. Two players start with scores of 20 and the first one to reduce the other's score to zero wins.

(on camera): You've got to think fast to be able to play this game and have the ability to reason logically, according to the inventor, a former professor of mathematics.

(voice-over): Magic and the trading card game concept turned Richard Garfield into a multi-millionaire. The best selling Pokemon was a spin-off. His magic creation was published in 1993 and now boasts seven million players in 52 countries.

RICHARD GARFIELD, "MAGIC" INVENTOR: What I want for Magic is for it to be a stable, classic game that doesn't rise up, peak and then fall off, but just becomes more like bridge or chess.

KELLY: In China, Magic has been given official status as a recognized national non-Olympic sport.

UNIDENTIFIED CHINESE RESIDENT: It's a very exciting intellectual sport that has a lot of deep strategy that people can really sink their mind into. And secondly, the properties of the game itself are just very attractive and fun to play.

KELLY: There are currently 4,000 magic cards on the market and 500 new ones published each year, thus constantly changing the game and challenging the players and keeping them hooked on the magic formula until the U.S. company Wizards of the Coast, which markets the game, runs out of magic ideas.

Patricia Kelly, CNN, Brussels.

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